I don’t remember when I saw a caricature for the first time, but I know that it’s always been my favorite kind of art – probably because I’m a goofball at heart and love to laugh and celebrate surprising discoveries.

When I got to college I decided to become an art major. That decision led to becoming and art teacher. That decision led me… to becoming a youth pastor. Well, it wasn’t that linear…

Meanwhile, my love for caricature art motivated me to start learning to capture a caricature likeness of people (rather than just a likeness) and to collect examples of other artists work in this area. Over the years I’ve gathered quite a number of books, magazines, and a couple of photo album scrap books of caricatures I’ve cut out and sorted by celebrity.

My caricatures began to develop when I came up with the idea of celebrating and commemorating the summer mission trips I tooks my youth group on each year. We brainstormed about the inside jokes and memories of the trip along with the specific things we wanted to tease individuals about. Then I created a group caricature and distributed copies to everyone.

Gradually I began to have people ask me to provide caricatures as gifts for their friends and families. This slowly led to a little business that has become a source of a lot of personal joy: JP’s Custom Caricatures (follow the link or search for my page on Facebook).

The rest of this journey is yet to be written, but I celebrate the gift God has given me and the chance to share it with others!